Hello developers, I’m Jheng from Monkey Potion, a tiny game studio based in Taiwan.

We recently released our first game Jade Ninja on iOS and it had been featured on 10+ Asian App Stores last month. As a result, we managed to get decent downloads from Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Taiwan, but US/UK contributed very few.

Regardless we tried hard to reach U.S. players and media but our efforts seemed to go in vain. We posted the game impression on TA forum thread and keep updating it but the response is so cold too. The ratings and comments on App Store are quite positive, though the game still can’t get attention from western players.

I’m wondering if the art style for Jade Ninja is so wrong for Westerners? Aside from a developer, do you consider the graphics is too ‘cute’ for you? What's your first impression in the screenshots? What would make you think that “this is not my type”?

We're depressed and lost. Any feedback is welcome, I wish to hear your critics. Thanks.

I must admit i've never liked this type of art style. I've seen a few games with 'similar' graphics. Cant quite put my finger on it, might be the 'big heads' of the other graphics i'm not sure

I've been brought up on Nintendo style graphics, not saying theyre 'cute' but you know what i mean.

But perhaps its a bit like 'anime' for me, eg big heads with big eyes etc, unsure what it is. For me personally i dont like swipe games so despite not being keen on the graphics because of the swipe control i wouldnt buy it anyway. (Sorry!)

I must admit i've never liked this type of art style. I've seen a few games with 'similar' graphics. Cant quite put my finger on it, might be the 'big heads' of the other graphics i'm not sure

I've been brought up on Nintendo style graphics, not saying theyre 'cute' but you know what i mean.

But perhaps its a bit like 'anime' for me, eg big heads with big eyes etc, unsure what it is. For me personally i dont like swipe games so despite not being keen on the graphics because of the swipe control i wouldnt buy it anyway. (Sorry!)

Hey, no worry. Your opinion is valuable. Thank you for being honest to us!

Have you addressed App Store Optimization? (ASO) and especially in this field keywords and their relationship with multiculturalism?
A good site (i'm not affiliated with them) is Appcode, they help optimize keywords for maximum exposure. A common mistake in ASO is linking common words with 1000 other companies, making it a free for all. Intelligent keyword marketing helps you move ahead of the pack & stand out in the crowd. If only by a nose.

Have you addressed App Store Optimization? (ASO) and especially in this field keywords and their relationship with multiculturalism?
A good site (i'm not affiliated with them) is Appcode, they help optimize keywords for maximum exposure. A common mistake in ASO is linking common words with 1000 other companies, making it a free for all. Intelligent keyword marketing helps you move ahead of the pack & stand out in the crowd. If only by a nose.

Do you mean localize the iTunes search keywords in as many languages as possible to improve its chance to be found?

I have no problem with the art style, but looking at the screenshots it looks very similar to loads of other games I've downloaded for free over the years - none of which stayed on my devices for long - so from what I can see so far I don't have a reason to try it.

This is no reflection on the game of course. I might be missing out on the best game ever.

You should, probably start with some good market like Italy, Spain, Japan, Netherlands and France.

Thanks for your advice. We already have Japanese and Chinese localizations in the game. We will try to localize at least the app name and the description in German, French and so on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dancj

I have no problem with the art style, but looking at the screenshots it looks very similar to loads of other games I've downloaded for free over the years - none of which stayed on my devices for long - so from what I can see so far I don't have a reason to try it.

This is no reflection on the game of course. I might be missing out on the best game ever.

Right. It's our fault to make it look like a mediocre endless runner game. That's maybe a big no-no for TA users and editors. Miserable.

First off congrats on the game, I personally like the look of it. I think the problem that your facing is that there is so many other games in your genre with a similar look and similar mechanics that it can be hard to stand out. What sort of marketing did you do for it?

Do you mean localize the iTunes search keywords in as many languages as possible to improve its chance to be found?

If we localized the app name and description too, will it be useful?

Yeah. By improving your keywords in searches, especially being more broad in languages as you say, you should be more visible in searches.

You would also be surprised what changes to a name & description may do also.
A quick example of the search engine -
A search of your game shows that as Jade Ninja its a solo display(Good) but when ninja is put in search, well I stopped counting at 100 (Bad) See what these other games are using as keywords to help distinguish yourself from the pack maybe? example, searching for ninja assassins only 9 games come up. (better)

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